Nigerian Football
NIGERIA PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE CLOCKS 29
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
The top tier of the Nigerian football league, the Nigerian professional League this Sunday clocks 29 since it kicked off on May 12, 1990.
However, it is the 48th football season in Nigeria since the establishment of the National League which kicked off unceremoniously on January 8, 1972.
Similarly, without fanfare, such that heralded the first North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1969 and the J-League of Japan in 1993, the Nigerian professional football league kicked off this day 29 years ago when 16 clubs paired in the first fixtures.
The pioneer clubs were Lagos ACB, BCC Lions of Gboko, Bendel Insurance, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, JIB Rocks of Jos, Kano Pillars Obanta United, Ranchers Bees, Enugu Rangers and Stationery Stores.
Others were Jos Highlanders, Calabar Rovers, Shooting Stars, Julius Berger, Enyimba and Bendel United.
The attempt to pitch one of the pioneer clubs against Crystal Palace of England did not materialized.
The professional league was an outcome of a long tortuous debate that started in the 1950s. It kicked off with a Super Stores versus Iwuanyanwu Nationale fixture at the waterfront arena, Onikan Stadium.
The Owerri side won 2-1 to become the first club to win a professional league match in Nigeria and the inaugural champions at the end of the season.
Ben Iroha of Iwuanyanwu also entered the record books as the first scorer in a professional league match in Nigeria.
To make the league more competitive and for clubs to have appetite for goals, a new point scoring device was adopted.
Traditionally, drawn games attracted just a point, but the NFA organizers of the league opted for two points for score draws and one for goalless encounters. Won games attracted three points.
The point-scoring device for the score drawn matches was in use from 1990 to 1994. The professional league had its share of drama. For instance, in Season 2000, Kwara United set a 14-week losing streak.
In 1996, the league champions emerged from the NFA boardroom when Udoji United were crowned. It was a fairy tale the following season when an unheralded Eagles Cement of Port Harcourt emerged champions.
Earlier in 1995, Bendel Insurance, pioneers in the National League that started in 1972, were relegated for the first time in the club’s history. Even though the Benin side climbed back in the 1997 season, it later had a decade sojourn in the wilderness after it was relegated in 2008 and climbed back at the end of the 2018 season.
Shooting Stars in 1999 became the first defending champions to be relegated in Nigerian professional league history. Balyesa United suffered similar fate at the end of 2009/2010 Season.
It may be interesting to note that the high-flying Enyimba in the Nigerian league were once relegated in the 1991 season while Enugu Rangers remain the only Nigerian club never to have been relegated since National League started in 1972.
Management of the league changed from the NFA in 2005 to the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) when an 18-man management body led by Chief Oyuiki Obaseki was inaugurated on June 18.
The 2012/13 marked another watershed when the NPL was pronounced illegal by a court of law. The NFF then issued the license to organize and regulated the professional league to a newly created League Management Company (LMC).
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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